Belmont University basketball player Keeton Belcher spoke to a group of inquisitive youngsters in the high school gym at Coach Mike Wright’s basketball camp last Friday.

Wright warned the children before the speech that they needed to make sure they listens when people talked to them and to look him or her in the eye whether it was he or a teacher. He told them to be attentive to Belcher no matter what.

“I don’t care if an elephant comes in the gym, walks down the stairs and starts doing cartwheels,” Wright said. “Don’t look at the elephant. Look at him.”

Belcher was one the Belmont players to play in the game against Duke University in the NCAA tournament earlier this year. Wright told the kids that Belcher had graduated from Pendleton County High School and had done what every high school player wants to do: lead their team to the state championship at Lexington’s Rupp Arena. Belcher told them that he was enjoying visiting Cadiz and that it was similar to the size of his hometown, Butler. Belcher, said that he was always six feet and nine inches tall, and that he had grown six inches taller between his freshman and sophomore years of high school.

Belcher said he had played on the Kentucky All-Star Team in high school and had been offered a scholarship to Nashville’s Belmont University on Election Day in 2004, which was in the fall before he graduated high school. He said that the first time he played in the NCAA tournament, it was in a game against Georgetown. He said that although Belmont didn’t win in the game against Duke, it was a very exciting experience and one he can look back on with pride. Especially since it was a very close game, with Belmont having a one-point lead in the last 30 seconds of the game.